Prevailing Winds
by Darkly Dreaming
Summary: Penny the tavern maid wins a ship in a bet. Unfortunately for first mate Leonard, the ship wasn't truly his to bet in the first place. Both will have to face the wrath of Captain Cooper - once he gets free and finds them. One man's quest to get his ship back meets one woman's quest for a magical amulet that controls the wind. Freedom is the name of the game and not everyone wins.
1. Prologue

A/N: It's September! International Talk Like a Pirate Day is the 19th but this challenge is all month long!

For those I didn't message, if you still want to participate here is the Pirata Codex:

It has to be a minimum of 1k, but no max. Write as much as you like.  
Must prominently feature Sheldon and Penny, but does not have to be shippy if you want a wider audience.  
Since we're starting a bit late, we'll extend the deadline to the end of September (but if you still don't get it done before then, post it whenever! No pressure!)

Only dead men tell no tales, so look lively and remember to have fun!

* * *

"Another win!" the blonde maiden raised her arms in victory and shimmied in her seat, green eyes sparkling.

Penny's shift at the tavern was over but she decided to hang around when a group of sailors entered. They were a strange lot; not very tall, and one was definitely not from around here. His skin was dark caramel, his eyes chocolate. If he were dressed better he might've been exotically attractive. As it was, he was still cute, but it was a puppy kind of cute. She sat next to him mostly to avoid his short friend. He was incredibly skinny and wore clothes that were entirely too tight, almost as though he were expecting to put a suit of armor on over them - which was ridiculous considering how small he was, he'd fall right over.

The one across from her, whom she played against, was obviously the leader, but only obviously because the other two looked to him. He wasn't quite as short as the tightly clothed man, but he wasn't exactly average height, either. His brown hair was wavy and his eyes squinted behind his wire-framed spectacles when he looked further away than the next table. As it was, he seemed to be the most normal of the trio.

He'd said he was captain of a ship called _Constance_, though he was thinking of renaming her. She found it a little hard to believe - he didn't exactly exude leadership qualities. In fact he very much looked like a follower. Penny was willing to bet that he was only captain because the others were so ill qualified. Something probably happened to the original captain, leaving him in charge.

Throughout the night, Penny won a lot. She also pretended to lose a lot so they'd keep playing. The more they drank the more confident they felt, and the more they bet.

Penny was almost finished for the night. She was about to take them for all they were worth when something she was not expecting happened: Captain Hofstadter bet his ship. She'd purposefully lost the last few rounds to lull them into betting high, but she wasn't expecting an entire ship!

"Well," she said, mockingly thoughtful. "If you're gonna give up your ship I should bet something real big too." Here she put on her biggest pout and her saddest eyes. "Except I don't really have anything."

She hung her head in 'shame' and 'spotted' her biggest assets and an 'idea' came to her. "Oh! I know! If I win I get your boat, but if you win you can have me!" she said with her biggest grin. "Not forever, mind you, but for the rest of the time you're in town." She winked and the captain swayed in his seat.

_I think the last of the blood in his head just travelled south,_ she thought. _This'll be a cinch._

Just as she'd planned, the last round went to her. She was the new owner of _Constance_.

The former Captain Hofstadter passed out in shock and as a gesture of pity she paid for a room for him and his friends before leaving for home.

Despite Penny's penchant for sleeping in, she made her way to the ship early. The earlier they set sail the less chance the previous captain and his mates had to renege on their bet. As it was, they were likely still passed out.

When Penny won the ship she'd also won its crew along with it. The crew, who had had no real loyalty to Hofstadter and his mates, took to Penny like - well, like fish to water, really. They were rude, and crude, and not exactly the cleanest men on the sea, but they were fun. Penny grew up on a pig and cattle farm so they quickly got used to Penny's lasso and hogtying if they tried anything with her.

She learned the art of sailing from the Boatswain who, since her takeover left them without a Quartermaster, became the Quartermaster. It was as though she were born for it and soon the _Queen P.'s Revenge _was one of the most known - and most feared - pirate ships of the realm.

Penny had never been happier. She took what she wanted and gave nothing back. She went where she wanted and never looked back.

~*DD*~*DD*~*DD*~

Former captain Sheldon Cooper sailed his dory into the harbor.

The Spanish privateers who'd captured him had interrogated him and discovered that he was of no value to them. As he was only a privateer himself and not a navy man there was no ransom coming their way, and with the absconsion of his crew with his ship he had little booty. Sheldon was able to barter his freedom as well as the small fore-and-aft rigged dory with a few jewels and gold nuggets he'd kept in his belt pouch for a rainy day.

He paid the harbor master the shilling to tie his boat to the dock and got directions to the nearest tavern. It was early yet, but he had a feeling his quarry would eventually make their way there if they were still in town. Sheldon didn't see the Constance, but if Leonard were as smart as he purported to be he wouldn't leave her in plain sight anyway.

_When I find those yellow-bellied, mutinous bilge rats, not even Davy Jones himself will save them..._


	2. Chapter 1

Over the course of the next two years Captain Queen, who asked everyone on board to call her Penny, became a feared and respected pirate captain. She took on anything from East India traders to Royal ships, though she mostly left the colonists alone.

Once, late in her first year as captain, she and some of the crew of the _Revenge_ dropped anchor near an island and rowed ashore, crossed the small jungle on foot, and blew up a Spanish fortress while the other half of her crew snuck on board the Spanish treasure galleon and sailed away with a king's ransom and then some. The galleon was moored at a small deserted island off the coast of Inagua.

Penny liked to think of it as her backup ship. It needed a little work, but if something happened to the _Revenge_, she could take her most loyal shipmates in the two longboats and make for her island, and the rest of them - should they survive the battle - would meet them in Tortuga.

It was a solid plan that Penny hoped she'd never need to execute.

~*DD*~*DD*~*DD*~

The corset did nothing for her internal organs, but it emphasized her outer assets in a way that made men a little stupid, so she put up with it. Whenever Penny did research and reconnaissance she wore a low cut dress with a corset and it rarely failed her. That once was a fluke because that particular sailor was more interested in her Quartermaster Zachary, and honestly she couldn't blame him.

Penny had heard rumors in Port Morant of a treasure and needed more information; once more she donned her 'disguise', hoping it would distract the drunken sailors from her nosy and specific questions.

"I sailed, once," she told the man beside her. Careful to only drink every second or third shot while she sipped her ale, she pretended to get more and more drunk. "It was the most wonderful feeling of freedom. I can only imagine what it must be like to sail all the time."

"Aye, it's gweat," her companion said. "Buwied tweasure, going whewever we want whenever we want." His speech impediment was annoying and his hands wandered, but at least he was easy on the eyes. "Pweasuwable company." Speaking of, his hand found its way to her rear for the third time that night. Penny grinned and gritted her teeth. She needed the information she heard he had, and if she could get it without sleeping with him, then all the better, but she'd do it if she had no other choice.

"Have you ever actually found buried treasure?" she asked, batting her eyelashes. "I heard tell of a so-called treasure but it isn't buried. Some sailor in the harbor was talking and I overheard, but he said it was just a strange artifact of some rarity. It didn't sound all that exciting." Penny took a sip of her ale, pretending to drink deeply. "Amulets are for the superstitious, anyway, and rarely are they of any real value."

The sailor - Barty, or Barney, maybe - looked at her with wide eyes, as though he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You heard a saiwor talking about an amuwet? When? I've heard stowies of an amuwet I'd wove to get my hands on. Supposedwy it awwows the weawer to contwow the wind."

Penny laughed. "An amulet to control the wind! While I'm sure that would be something, indeed, surely you don't truly believe it? Magic is dead. Religion stamped it out." She hoped that with her adamant disbelief he'd do as men do and attempt to correct her.

She wasn't disappointed. "Wew excuse me, ma'am," he said. She could tell he was offended and was preparing to lecture her. She'd seen it enough, but since it was exactly what she wanted from him she let him talk.

He continued, gearing up. "I wead a widdwe on a map bawey a week ago that says diffewentwy."

He pulled a small scroll out of his loose sleeve and unrolled it. Penny's heart caught in her throat. She didn't expect to actually find the riddle itself tonight. She tuned out his voice and read the scroll herself.

_The mouth of the dragon speaks_

_The prevailing winds_

_And hides the key without name _

_The key unlocks the Anemoi_

"Now," Barry - for she remembered his name was Barry, or presumed since he pronounced it 'Bawwy' - said a bit condescendingly. "This is wittle known in these parts but the Anemoi were the Gweek gods of the winds, so it stands to weason the Anemoi this key unwocks would be named for them. Therefore, the artifact may vewy well contwow the wind."

Having done her research, Penny knew this, so she grinned and said, "Well. That's just fascinating. Maybe it is real, then." Her eyes widened as she looked behind her companion. "Damn!"

"What?" he asked, turning to look. She took the opportunity to take the small scroll off the table and rose from her seat.

A man had just walked through the tavern door and zeroed in on her. "My brother, come to take me home, no doubt. I've duties that must be attended, but I simply loathe them." She turned to her companion and put on a pout. "I must go, but I so enjoyed your company. Perhaps we may meet again." She blew him a kiss and hurried to the tall man making his way over. They whispered a short exchange and left the establishment.

Outside, Penny looped her arm through her Quartermaster's and together they made the trek back to the longboat that would get them back to the ship anchored just offshore.

On the longboat, she pulled out the scrap of parchment with the riddle. She hoped it wouldn't be too hard to decipher. It was a short clue, but it was only the first of she knew not how many.

"Any ideas, Zachary?" she asked her Quartermaster. She'd yet to find anyone she trusted enough to be her first mate, so Zachary filled both roles often. He wasn't the most educated, but he knew the _Revenge_ like the back of his hand. As well he should since he'd been part of her crew when she was the _Constance_ under Cooper's captaincy.

"No, captain," he said, rowing them back to the ship. "I bet Cooper would know."

Which might be useful if he hadn't been captured by the Spaniards and left for dead. Even if he did manage to survive she doubted he'd help her. After all, she had his ship. She'd heard stories of the former captain and while he was smart as a whip he wasn't exactly nice.

"We'll figure it out," she said, and boarded the _Revenge_.

* * *

A/N: I will _not _finish this by the end of the month. I might not even finish this by the end of the year. BUT! I do plan on finishing it eventually. This will eventually become an original novel, but first I have to iron out plot details and...y'know...come up with original characters. XD But I figured I could use these characters as a dry run for the plot.

With that in mind, remember to review! No man is an island and feedback keeps we writers writing. Don't let me abandon this.


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